Still going strong and looking to the future, Midlands based manufacturing company B Hepworth & Co Ltd is celebrating its 150 years anniversary in 2018.

B Hepworth & Co Ltd was founded in 1868 by Mr Benjamin Hepworth, originally as a manufacturer of chemicals for the carpet manufacturing industry in Kidderminster. The Eddy family acquired the business in the early 1900’s and continued with the business, however during the 1950’s and 1960’s environmental pressures of operating a chemical plant in a town centre, coupled with commercial pressures led to the company looking at a different future direction; the design and manufacture of windscreen wiping systems.

In 1988 Jonathan Eddy (Hepworth’s current CEO) became Managing Director of B Hepworth & Co Ltd and was responsible for a strategic change of direction, taking the company from its traditional UK Commercial Vehicle and Bus markets to the Marine and then Rail markets, targeting development of those export markets.

In 2004 Jonathan Eddy concluded the successful purchase of Hepworth’s largest competitor, Wynstruments Ltd. and then in 2009 a Fabrications company was bought, adding to the company’s portfolio of services. In 2015 Monitor Marine International, manufacturer of high quality, precision engineered stainless steel marine deckware and interior fittings, was acquired and, in 2016, a RIM Moulding division was set up and launched, adding to the company’s product offering and bringing on board a new variety of clients from additional business sectors.

Hepworth relishes variety and challenge, and is proud to have its products on some of the world’s most prestigious and interesting projects, with wiper systems on vessels from the Queen Mary, US Navy Combat ships and Oil Rigs, to those on the fastest train in the world and the Arial Nomad!

Ever flexible in outlook with their Marine, Rail, Automotive, RIM Moulding and Fabrications manufacturing divisions, award-winning Hepworth is always looking to the future; the next innovation, the next added-value service, the next developing market.